There is no federal law requiring employers to give workers any paid leave at all, so if your employer gives this as a non-required benefit, they get to set the terms.

The state of Connecticut and several cities (SF, NY, DC, Seattle, Portland (OR), Jersey City, Newark (NJ)) have laws in place requiring some (or all, in San Francisco) employers to let employees earn paid sick time. If you work in one of those jurisdictions, your employer's sick leave policy must comply with the law.

One cool thing is that most of these laws allow the sick days to be used as "safe" days to get help for domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

Yay Mallory for giving OSHA a shout-out! Sadly for a lot of abused workers, though, housekeepers and other domestic employees generally aren't covered by OSHA.

The good news is that four states -- New York, Hawaii, California, and as of yesterday, Massachusetts -- have passed domestic workers' bills of rights. So, I propose changing curse #2 to "May the housekeeper at your Martha's Vineyard retreat be fully aware of her rights under state law and know how to enforce them."

I do not enjoy it. And I hate it when the pads I buy turn out to be the ones with the stupid "Have a happy period" message on them. DON'T TELL ME TO BE HAPPY ABOUT SOMETHING I HATE.

For about three years I took one of the pills where you only bleed four times a year, and it was fantastic. But then I started getting breakthrough bleeding and had to switch back to one of the four-week-cycle ones.

I never fold sheets because there is one set of sheets that goes on the bed, and it goes straight from the dryer back on to the bed. I bet a pet monkey could be trained to make the bed, if not fold sheets.

How comforting t to see I'm not alone in my aversion to driving! I did get a license when I was in high school, but I never owned a car, moved across the country after college, and have spent my entire post-college life in cities where owning a car tends to be more a burden than a benefit. Also, in the time that I did drive, I had multiple parking mishaps, so ... I think those of us who have a hard time processing multiple forms of stimuli at once just shouldn't be operating large pieces of machinery that could easily kill someone.

I'm perfectly happy taking the Metro and the bus where I need to go, and using cabs for trips that would be too much of a pain via transit. But! What happens when my husband is old and decrepit and needs to be driven to the doctor? There are plenty of cabs where we live, but I can't imagine they're fun for anyone who takes a long time to get in and out of a vehicle or deals poorly with being jostled. And isn't it kind of unfair that when we do our monthly Zipcar shopping or go on a beach vacation, he has to do all the driving? (Although, the beach vacations are always his idea - I prefer visiting cities with good transit.)

I have this idea that I'll eventually have to start driving again, but I feel like I'd need to do it regularly in order to keep my skills up and not endanger the lives of those around me.

Great piece! And as another DC bus rider, I'll say that it's interesting to see the demographic differences on the same buses at different times of day -- the 6:30am riders generally don't seem to be going to the same jobs the 8:30am riders are.

I don't know how long you've been away from DC, but you might notice some nice changes in the bus system. WMATA has been working hard to address some of the crowding and slowness issues, and offering lots of opportunities for public input. I'm looking forward to the limited-stop bus in the works for 14th St. NW!

Oh, I especially love that last one -- "Santa baby, the occupational safety of the working poor is a feminist issue." I've been struggling to laugh silently while reading this, but I may have to share that one with my co-workers.

"This is the part that most people overlook when they think of parasites: most parasites don’t want to kill you, but they make it a lot easier for you to die."

Well put! I love this post. Can it be a recurring series, pretty please?

Yeah, if you try exercises and still have problems, go see a physical therapist and see if you've got alignment issues. The earlier you fix such things, the more pain and suffering you avoid later on.

In my case, a physical therapist identified that I had hip alignment issues, and PT helped reduce my pain, but then I hit a plateau and wasn't improving. I finally found a pilates instructor who developed her own set of techniques for helping people with my kind of problem, and now I can finally make it through a day without taking the maximum dose of anti-inflammatory drugs.

I don't think most people are as messed up as I am, but the moral of the story is this: if your problem persists, see a physical therapist. If the physical therapist doesn't fix you, look for a better physical therapist, or ask around to see what kind of practitioner has helped people with intractable musculoskeletal problems.

Also: people who sit all day, get up and walk around every 30-40 minutes. Get a glass of water, go to the bathroom, or just stand up and do a couple of toe touches. Long stretches of sitting are hazardous to your health!

... and now I see that The Toast is already on top of the DNLee story!